


Daymares

by onereallyobsessednerd



Series: Paul Lived [1]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, F/M, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23517175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onereallyobsessednerd/pseuds/onereallyobsessednerd
Summary: In an Alternate Universe where Paul lives, he and Emma live on her serene pot farm. Life seems good. But Emma keeps having flashbacks or daymares as she calls them. Paul helps, but she can never seem to get them to stop. An unknown source fixes all her problems.This is a oneshot that will be part of a series
Relationships: Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Series: Paul Lived [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692181
Kudos: 25





	Daymares

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on AO3 so anything is helpful.  
> Not Beta'd.  
> I also know I'm not a fantastic writer, but I still love doing it  
> So enjoy!

It happened again. Emma woke in a cold sweat. But she didn’t wake up. She had been completely conscious the whole time. She had been sitting across the kitchen table from Paul, eating breakfast.

Paul stopped moving, the fork midway in his mouth. Emma then sprinted to the bathroom and threw up.

She had another daymare. She was having them a lot recently. She would look up at the field filled with cannabis and see people with blue liquid dripping from their mouths running towards her singing at the top of her lungs. Sometimes, she was outside and they would reach her and bite her and claw at her and she would scream. At the top of her lungs. Then they were gone as soon as they appeared. Sometimes she would be inside and she could only watch on in horror as they pressed against the glass. 

Paul would come running and hold her until she stopped crying, then she would have to lay down. They would lay in bed all afternoon, he would stroke her hair and calmly talk to her about things he knew she didn’t know but didn’t really care about.

She avoided music at all costs. She had a radio for the first few days they lived there, but she knew one day she would accidentally hit it or bump it and it would turn on and she would be launched into a daymare. So she put it in the attic.

“You okay?” Paul slid his hand over hers and had a concerned look on his face.

“Yes. I just… had another… one…” Emma took deep breaths. Paul slid his hand up her arm and over her shoulders, a steadying hold on reality. She concentrated on his touch and smiled. “Thanks.”

She hadn’t had a daymare since the one she’d had at breakfast the week before. She had sent two or three different shipments of weed off, but this week had been fairly slow, keeping the crop and checking it all, regular watering and such. Mostly out in the field. Paul had been constant support for her. 

Paul. She thought about him as she walked up and down the fields, checking the crop. He had moved with her to Colorado when she met him. He had gotten saved and they had decided to live together. To be together. They understood each other. She could joke with him and he would laugh with his full laugh, never like he did before the invasion.

He was happier now. Emma could tell, he seemed to be. She remembered him coming in every day to the coffee shop and waiting until she was at the register to order his black coffee. He came in every day… to see her.

She had someone who loved her.

Emma actually hadn’t seen Paul that day. Emma smiled and turned back to the house to see if he wanted to fuck up the kitchen again by trying to make a cake.

She stepped into the house and instantly, she felt strange. She didn’t hear any noise, but Paul was never a noisy guy. She walked through the entrance hall and living room, checking the kitchen and dining room. Nothing. She then went into their office, then bedroom, both of which he wasn’t in. She was worried now.

Emma turned in a full circle, very confused and concerned. Then she heard a light thump. The attic. She went out to the garage and saw the attic ladder down. It was silent, though, the one thump being the only noise that had sounded.

She went up to the ladder and climbed up it. She looked around when she was high up enough to. Paul was sitting in an old armchair, his head in his hands, breathing hard. He had earbuds in, but Emma couldn’t see what they were connected to yet. There were a few boxes sitting around and Emma stepped onto the floor, startling Paul out of his trance. He was sweating, his face red and obviously terrified.

Then Emma saw it. The earbuds were connected to… the radio. The radio she had gotten rid of out of fear. Fear of being triggered into a daymare by any semblance of music. Paul looked apologetic, but that fearful look didn’t leave his eyes either.

“Paul, what the hell are you doing?” Emma gasped, feeling betrayed. She had gotten rid of this to help her and here he was, doing the opposite of what she thought was good for him. She started losing her breath. Her heart felt shallow. She watched as Paul reached out for her.

“Sorry, Emma. I was…” he looked away, holding her hand in his. “I’ve been having daymares, too. I didn’t want to put too much on you, but the only thing that calms me down is classical music. I don’t know why-”

“Why would you do this?” Emma felt utterly betrayed, falling backwards, away from Paul. Her hands slipped from his. She gasped for breath, her eye catching movement in the corner of her vision. 

It was happening. She spied the blue globs of liquid dripping from Zoey’s mouth as the dead-faced girl charged towards her. Nora appeared on the other side, charging at the same speed towards her. Emma screamed and got up, running towards Paul, tripping on the earbud chord on the way. It pulled the chords out, playing the classical music loud and proud. Emma fell on the ground before Paul, crumpled in a heap.

The beauty of the music flowed through her ears as the breath from the Zoey and Nora monsters disrupted the hairs on her neck.

Emma listened to the music, hoping it would shut Zoey and Nora out. The elegant sound of string instruments mixed with a few horns and such sent a shiver down Emma’s spine, the breath on her neck disappearing. Emma listened, close. She concentrated on the flow of the melody. It sounded like a familiar piece, but Emma couldn’t place it.

In an instant, she could feel Paul over her, pulling her into his arms and holding her. They cried together for a while, just sitting there, two emotional messes listening to classical music in an attic.

Emma liked it. She honestly did.

A few months later, Emma hadn’t had any daymares for three weeks. It was the longest time she hadn’t had one. When Emma discovered that music, the thing she feared so much, calmed her down, they installed a speaker system across the house. Emma and Paul could both control it, so if one saw the other having a panic attack or daymare, they could play music.

And every once in a while, Emma could coax Paul into dancing with her. She’d taught him to waltz and all sorts of stuff.

They felt ridiculous sometimes, but they lived happily, listening to music on their pot farm till the end of their days.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! If you see anything wrogn or have any suggestions please leave a comment or let me know!


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